Sun Valley Blog

Free skiing this Sunday at Sun Valley Nordic

Don’t forget about the Nordic Demo Days this Sunday, the day after the Boulder Mountain Tour, at the Sun Valley Nordic Center. Marking the official end of the highly successful Sun Valley Nordic Festival, the Demo Days give skiers a chance to try the latest and greatest from Fischer, Rossignol and Salomon. Wax technicians, local shop representatives and BMT racers will be on hand to offer advice and pointers. Hours are from 10-2, and there will be an outside BBQ during the Demo! Oh yea, and the Super Bowl will be streaming inside the Clubhouse later in the day. Best of all, the skiing is FREE all day, as are the Demos. Don’t miss this chance to ski some of the best trails in the world, on the best Nordic gear available today. What a great way to recover from the Boulder.

The first annual Sun Valley Nordic Festival is coming to its curtain call tomorrow with the historic Boulder Mountain Tour. Weather reports are calling for a party cloudy day tomorrow, which will make for good race conditions with today’s light snow fall. Don’t miss the internationally respected race that will include racers from all over the country as well as some of your local favorites. The race starts tomorrow, Saturday, at Senate Meadows at 10 am. The first-ever Half Boulder will start at Baker Creek at 10:30 am. There will be shuttles running throughout the day leaving from Hemingway Elementary for supporters, fans, family, and volunteers. There will be an awards ceremony and after-party at 6pm.

Last night was the Nordic Fest’s Downtown Ketchum Nordic Night. Crowds filled the Sun Valley Center for the Arts lot across from the Post Office in downtown Ketchum to watch the friendly competition, warm up around the bonfire, admire the snow sculptures and enjoy the tunes from band, Sol’Jibe. One of the biggest hits of the night was the World Championships of Snowshoe Dancing featuring moves like the crowd-pleasing shopping cart. The resounding champion of the dancing event was SVSEF Alpine coach and dancing snowshoe extraordinaire, Doran Key. Sponsored by the Elephant’s Perch, the SVSEF, the BCRD, and Sun Valley Center for the Arts, the event was deemed a huge success as skiers raced to beat Nordic coach Rick Kapala in the double-pole races and danced right up until the last song.

Also happening on the snow this weekend is the Sun Valley Freestyle Competition. The three-part event includes yesterday’s Slopestyle event on Dollar, today’s Halfpipe competition and this weekend’s mogul races. It features both local and regional athletes on the slopes of Dollar and Baldy. Yesterday’s Slopestyle event in Dollar’s Terrain Park was swept by local boys and SVSEF skiers, Colter Brehmer and Tai Barrymore. And today’s halfpipe event was shaping up to be quite a show as well. Tomorrow and Sunday, starting at 10 am, make sure check out athletes killing it on the new Mogul course on Warm Spring’s Race Arena. Props to Colter, Tai, and all the other athletes competing this weekend!

Seven members of the Norwegian Olympic Nordic ski team arrived in Sun Valley this Tuesday to finish off their training before the Olympics in Vancouver. Check out the fresh video and interviews!

The Sun Valley Town Series continued this week. This time it was a little cloudy with some snow falling as your favorite local racers competed on Lower Cozy. As Race Department head Mike Wrobel said, he must have set the course pretty fast because this week the racers killed it on the GS course. Dead Last Team member, Robin Sarchett continued his winning streak, grabbing first place and beating his nearest competition, Carlo Rixon (from Team Tekasoreass’s), by four tenths of a second. The top girl this week was speedy Erika Hogan (Team SVSEF) again, finishing fourth overall. The winners of the traditional fifth of tequila (the fifth place male and female) were John Campbell from Team Hide the Decline and birthday girl and Scott USA team member, Toby Arnett. Billy Cook (Team Pulling Out Is For Quitters) and Kevin Moss (Hores to Culture) were the two rabbits this week, finishing 51st and 52nd.

Six teams tied for first this week, each with zero points. They were Wood River Masonry, Tekasoreass’s, SVSEF, Ski Tek Trainwrecks, Scott USA and the blog.sunvalley.com Blog Chicks. And because the top place goes to the first alphabetically, your very own blog.sunvalley.com Blog Chicks were the winning team this week. Check back next Thursday to find out if the Blog Chicks can keep it up, or if any other shake ups happen for next week’s World Cup Wednesday. Thanks to Whiskey Jacques for hosting this week’s after-party!

The Sun Valley Race Department puts on quite a race.

Wednesday's lone tele-racer rips it up on Lower Cozy.

Two of the boys from team Pulling Out Is For Quitters (sponsored by Collared Greens) with a quarter of blog.sunvalley.com Blog Chicks.

The man himself, Race Department head Mike Wrobel, with everyone's favorite Race Dpt gals, Jen Helms and Candy Crane.

Your very own blog.sunvalley.com Blog Chicks and the Week Two first place team!

“Spring Fling” SnowSports Camp (formerly known as Blaine County Kids Camp)

3 consecutive weekends: Feb 20 & 21, 27 & 28, and Mar. 6 & 7.

Limit first 150 skiers per session and 100 snowboarders per session.

$130 includes 6 lessons and all day lift ticket.

AM Session: 9-11:30 PM session: 12:30-3:00.

First session meets at Dollar Mtn.

Adult Spring Fling
3 consecutive Saturdays February 20, 27 and March 6th

Beginners: 10am-12pm at Dollar Mountain

Intermediate to Advanced: 1-3 at River Run

$110 includes 6 hrs of instruction

*Does NOT include lift ticket.

Please call the Sun Valley Snowsports School at (208) 622-2289 for more information. snowsports@sunvalley.com

The Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour will make a stop in Sun Valley the weekend of February 4^th. For three nights the festival, which will make its tenth annual stop in Sun Valley this year, will showcase 20 films over the three nights. The festival is working in conjunction with the 2010 Sun Valley Nordic Festival and the Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center’s Avalanche Awareness Week. Proceeds will benefit the Avalanche Center and the Satipo Kids Project, which funds the education of 38 children in Peru, the weekend is sure to be educational, intriguing, and entertaining.

The Banff Mountain Film Festival was started in 1976 and takes place in Banff the first weekend in November each year. It is one of the largest mountain film festivals in the World, showing films in 285 communities and to over 200,000 people this year alone. The festival consistently “offers up exploration of remote landscapes and mountain culture to adrenaline fueled action sports and thought provoking mountain films.” This year’s stop in Sun Valley will include films like mountain bike film “Kranked-Revolve”, a profile of unicyclists in “Revolution One”, “The Ultimate Skiing Showdown”, a Australian boy’s story of competing in long-distance horseback riding in Mongolia in “A Little Bit Mongolian”, and “Project Megawoosh”, the story of the world’s largest human water slide.

All films will be shown at the nexStage Theater, the doors will open at 6 pm, with the program beginning at 6:30 pm and the films at 7 pm. Tickets are $15 and are available at Chapter One Bookstore, Backwoods, and the Elephant’s Perch.

Wednesday, Feb. 3, will be an exciting day at the Sun Valley Nordic Center. On top of the Norwegian National Team training here, we will be hosting the Sun Valley Sprint Races from 1p-3p. Sprint races are the Nordic equivalent to SkierCross, and offer great racing and spectating. The course will utilize the White Clouds trail system across from the Nordic Center, and is approximately 1.65KM in length. Waves of 4-6 skiers compete for a place in Semi-final and Final heats.  If you have never skied in a Sprint race, it is a blast.  And sprint races are just as much fun to watch.  The price for the race has been reduced to $10 per entry, with the money going into the “pot” for the top female and male winners. 

Details: 

Sun Valley Nordic Sprint Races
1:00:00 PM
Sun Valley Nordic Center

AFTERNOON SPRINT RACES on the White Cloud trail system at Sun Valley Nordic.

DAY OF REGISTRATION ONLY at the Sun Valley Nordic Center.

Open male and open female categories only.

$10 entry…skiers are guaranteed to race at least 2 heats.

NEW AFTERNOON SPRINT FORMAT:
9am-12:30pm: Registration at the Sun Valley Nordic Center
1:00pm: Sprint Heats begin on 1.5 K loop (waves of 4-6 depending on registration)
2:00pm: Semifinal heats
2:30pm: Final heats

Under blue skies and with three feet of new snow in the last two weeks, January is coming to a close in Sun Valley. With the 2009/2010 season only halfway done, don’t even bother thinking about spring yet! Head up on the mountain and shred, enjoy a beer on the decks of Roundhouse or Warm Springs and work on your goggle tan, get your heart rate pumping and head uphill on your Nordic skis, and make sure to enjoy any of the happenings around town.

The first annual Sun Valley Nordic Festival kicks off tomorrow with a week full of events, workshops, clinics, and parties all leading up to the main event, the Boulder Mountain Tour next Saturday. (www.svnordicfestival.com)

Tomorrow, Saturday, January 30th, is also the first ever January Rail Jam at the 511 Building. The event will take place at the 511 Building parking lot on Leadville Avenue between 5th and 6th streets. Boarders and skiers will ride the rails, including the steep stairway down to the parking lot while DJ Spicetrain spins the soundtrack, with a $500 prize going to the rider with the best tricks. There will be food, drinks, and music, with all proceeds benefiting the SVSEF and Mountain Town Events. Check it out from 7-10pm tomorrow night and don’t miss the afterparty at the Roosevelt following the competition. Organized by Sun Valley Snowboard Team coach, Andy Gilbert and the city of Ketchum, the January Rail Jam is the first of its kind around town and promises to be a good time.

With two local athletes heading to the Olympics next month, as well as a third SVSEF athlete being named to the Olympic team yesterday, our community definitely has something to celebrate. Simi Hamilton, an SVSEF Olympic Development athlete and Nordic skier from Aspen, CO, was named yesterday to the 2010 Olympic Team. After a standout season that has included a US National Championships and a trip to the World Championships, he will now join Graham Wantanabe and Morgan Arritola in representing Sun Valley and the US at the Vancouver Olympics. Come celebrate and show support for our local athletes as the SVSEF and Sun Valley Company throw them a send-off party Sunday, January 31st at the Sun Valley Nordic Clubhouse from 4pm-6pm. A part of the Sun Valley Nordic Festival, the Olympic Send-Off Party will honor our newest Olympic heroes as well as local Para-Olympians Elitsa Storey, Andy Soule, and Mark Bathum.

Now head out and enjoy that epic Sun Valley sun and we’ll see you around town.